Jasti Chelameswar, C.J.

1. The four appellants are petitioners in WP(C) No. 1355/2008, which was dismissed by an order, dated 25.7.2008, alongwith a number of other writ petitions, which were clubbed together and heard by the learned Judge as certain common questions arose.

2. Essentially, the question, with reference to each of the appellants herein, is whether he or she is a 'citizen' of India or a 'foreigner' within the meaning of the expression "foreigner", as defined under Section 2(a) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, which reads:

2(a) "foreigner means a person, who is not a citizen of India.

3. The definition is couched in negative language. Therefore, it becomes necessary to examine whether a person is a citizen of India or not in order to determine whether the person is a foreigner or not. However, the expression "citizen" is not defined in any statute.

4. Who is a citizen of India? The law, on this aspect, is contained in Part-II of the Constitution. Articles 5 to 11 thereof deal with the citizenship of this country. Article 5 declares as follows:

5. Citizenship at the commencement of the Constitution. - At the commencement of this constitution every person who has his domicile in the territory of India and -

(a) who was born in the territory of India; or

(b) either of whose parents was born in the territory of India; or

(c) who has been ordinarily resident in the territory of India for not less than five years immediately preceding such commencement, shall be a citizen of India.

5. It can be seen that Article 5 deals with the citizenship of this country at the commencement of the Constitution. Article 5 recognises three categories of people to be citizens of India - (a) a person born in the territory of India, (b) persons either of whose parents was born in the territory of India and (c) persons, who are ordinarily resident in the territory of India for a period not less five years preceding the commencement of the Constitution. Person claiming to be the citizen of India, on the date of the commencement of the Constitution, is not only required to satisfy one of the three alternative specifications mentioned above but also satisfy that he had his domicile on the territory of India. What exactly is the import of the expression "domicile" in the context of Article 5is not necessary for us to discuss in the instant case.

6. Articles 6 and 7 of the Constitution deal with special class of persons migrating either to or from the territory "now included in Pakistan" (i.e., on the date of the commencement of the Constitution). These Articles obviously were introduced in the background of partition of the territory, which was defined as "India" in the Government of India Act, 1935, and the large-scale exodus of people from the newly created two States of India and Pakistani1. It may not be necessary for us to go into the details of the other articles of Part-II of the Constitution except Article 11, which reads as follows:

11. Parliament to regulate the right of citizenship by law. - Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part shall derogate from the power of Parliament to make any provision with respect to the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.

7. It can be seen from the above that Article 11 expressly authorises the Parliament to make law with respect to acquisition or termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to citizenship.: In our view, such a power necessarily inheres in the Parliament, in view of Article 246(1)2 read with Entry 173 of List-I of the Seventh Schedule. Article

8. In exercise of the powers under Article 246(1) read with Entry 17 and Article 11, the Parliament made the Citizenship Act, 1955. Under the scheme of the said Act, there are four modes of acquiring citizenship of this country - (1) Citizenship by birth, (2) Citizenship by descent, (3) Citizenship by registration and (4) Citizenship by naturalisation.

9. Section 3 of the Citizenship A